Roz's Website

RozWorks.comVisit my website to view journal selections, paintings, and book arts projects. For the most recent information on classes and workshops please click on "Classes" in the categories list of this blog.

Second "Design Recharge" Interview: April 1, 2015In this second interview with Diane Gibbs at "Design Recharge" we focus on International Fake Journal Month. If you're wondering just what that is, I give a great description of it, and why you might want to participate. Also check out our earlier interview (below on this list) if you want more information about how I approach visual journaling.

First "Design Recharge" Interview: February 12, 2015Diane Gibbs of Design Recharge interviewed me for International Fake Journal Month (2015). We get a little side tracked and talk a lot about sketching, visual journaling, and my creative process. It's a great interview.

Where Is Roz Blogging?

Podcasts with Roz

Danny Gregory and I Discuss Visual JournalingSadly a two part podcast from May 2008 made with Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life," is not currently available. We talked about journaling, art media, and materials…If this becomes available again in the future I will let you know.

Finding Bits of TimeRicë Freeman-Zachery, author of "Creative Time and Space," talks to me about finding time to be creative. (Taped October 23, 2009.)

Brushes

October 25, 2013

Left: Sketch that is approx. 4 x 6 inches in an 11 x 14 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media hardbound journal. (The sketch is only about 4 inches tall.) French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna Schmincke gouache. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I have three different images to discuss today. They may seem unconnected because two are portraits and one is a nude figure study from life drawing, but they all have one thing in common—they all rely on squinting. And that's the project for Friday: Squint while you sketch something so that you can better see the values.

For this project you can use a photograph of a friend, you can stop your TV at an image that you want to work on, you can set up a still life on your table, you can go off to life drawing. It doesn't matter.

Work on watercolor paper (or a high quality wet media paper like Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media paper) because you'll want the ability to lighten areas if necessary, i.e., lift off paint. Sizing on watercolor paper (or quality wet media paper) will allow you to do this.

Work with gouache in diluted applications (if you're using great gouache like Schmincke or M. Graham) or work with glazes of watercolor, your choice.

Work monochromatically. I tend to work with two complementary colors and use them to neutralize each other, and let one predominate. But you can work with any dark valued pigment alone, payne's grey if you have it (I prefer to mix my neutrals), or sepia. Sometimes I simply start using whatever is left over on my palette and mix as necessary. Whatever you do make sure you have paint that will allow you to get a value range from darkest darks to lights. Using a high key color like yellow isn't going to work.

Use a large round watercolor brush. (I like to use a number 12 round that comes to a good tip. Your brush should hold a lot of wash.) Don't use your Niji Waterbrush, use a real watercolor brush for this project because you want a brush with a great belly that can hold a lot of color and you want to work on managing your water.

Left: Sepia watercolor on Arches hot press watercolor board. I cut a 16 x 20 inch board in half to get a 10 x 16 inch board. I did this in a figure drawing class with Stephan Orsak at the Atelier. The goal of the class was to sketch the figure directly in the 2 hour and 45 minute class. Everyone else was working in oil paints but Stephan let me work in gouache. I ended up using dilute washes because they were easier to try and erase from the board. I slowed myself way down and focused on the shapes and values. This wasn't always successful. The first attempt is the horizonal sketch that is just above the date at the bottom of this board. Then, disappointed with that, and knowing no amount of additional washes could save it, I started the upper body view on the left. Towards the end of the session the instructor told us that we should prepare to draw this week's and the next two week's poses on a single "canvas" so I turned my board on its side again and quickly did the full stance at the top. (The model was doing something odd with his foot and I wanted to have some sort of note about that.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Left: Here is a detail of the figure study. I didn't get very far with the darkest darks before I had to abandon it and do a second full-figure image. You can see where I wanted to go however. My outline around the figure was made with too dark a wash and it isn't blending out so if I want to make it disappear in this instance I would have to go darker on the background. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Set up your light source so that there are strong shadows and a range of values in your subject. (If you're working from a photo or TV choose appropriately: "Perry Mason" is a great place to start for strong lighting, and it's already monochomatic!).

1. Look at your subject and squint. Close your eyes tightly so that color recognition begins to disappear and what you see are shadow shapes.

2. Look at your paper and draw those shapes with your brush and a diluted wash of paint.

Note: You can elect to go in with a dark wash and get the shadow areas as dark as possible, but not all papers will allow you to lift off watercolor easily so you might prefer, as I do, to work lightly and build up. This also allows me to correct for placement, shape, and proportion.

I tend to start with an eye, and work outwards, if it's a face. On a full figure I tend to do light painted lines for the contour, to start, then I go in and look at shapes. Over time your memory will hold the shapes in your mind better.

Don't forget that you can work around negative shapes with your brush and leave your highlights.

3. Once I have an overall aspect down I go in with darker washes and refine wash shapes and values. I work all over the sketch at that point, because a dark value in one area will inform the dark value in another. Keep squinting when you look at your subject.

Note: When you lay in your washes load your brush so that it is full of the strength of paint you want to use. (Test a dilution at the corner of your paper if you're not sure.) Apply this wash to all areas in your sketch where you see that value—with one big long stroke, adjusting the shape of the shadow/value, by the movement of your brush. That's the goal. Don't worry if you don't do it each and every time. Don't worry if you have to go back and glaze in a darker value when portions of your lighter wash have dried. That's why it's practice!

Many people find it helpful to do a background tone against which they can judge the values in the subject. This is obvious in a still life, but in a portrait or figure sketch it might seem less obvious. I tend to leave the backgrounds of my portrait studies the color of the paper, but recently I've been adding background washes. Try both and see which works best for you.

Left: Direct brush sketch with French Ultramarine Blue, Magenta, and Burnt Sienna on Strathmore 300 Series Watercolor paper, 9 x 12 inch sheet. (I wrote about this watercolor paper at the link provided.)

If you need to lift up color (and your paper allows it) I recommend you use a stiff brush, like a scrubber. Wet it with clean water and gently rub on the area you wish to remove color from. Blot the paper to remove the lifted color. Rinse the color from your scrubbing brush. Repeat as needed with a couple caveats:

i. Some papers won't take rubbing, but pill and fall apart.

ii. Some colors stain and are difficult to lift. Switch to non-staining colors (manufacturers label colors for you so check their website if you don't know).

iii. If you need to lift a lot of color and it doesn't come off in one go it is sometimes best to let the paper dry completely in that area after blotting. Return to lift more when the paper is dry there. (Over time you'll get a sense of what your paper can tolerate and you'll behave accordingly.)

5. Stop before you find yourself fussing. (This is not as easy at it seems so don't beat yourself up if you find it impossible to stop in time—just stop as soon as you notice you're fussing.)

Note: Over time you'll learn to control your water/pigment mix, and be able to judge drying times. If you add more glazes of paint over an already wet area you'll get blending and dilution and quite possibly some ballooning and other water after effects. Remember the conditions that applied when you went in to that wash and you'll learn to avoid it or seek it out, depending on your preference.

Remember to slow down and take your time while working on this project. You can always increase your speed later.

I hope you have fun this evening (or weekend if you can devote the time—and it would be good to work a couple hours everyday for three days in a row on this exercise, hint, hint, hint) with this Project Friday.

So in June I was watching Perry Mason again, and decided to sketch with the PPBP of course. I wanted to leave details out and try to supply them with washes of gouache.

The PPBP works great on this paper, as does the gouache. It's a great way to get some sketching practice in. The black and white TV show makes seeing values quick without the distraction of color.

Right: Direct brush sketching with a number 12 round and light washes of Purple Magenta Schmincke gouache. (Tabitha Coffey from "Tabitha Takes Over.") Click on the image to view an enlargement. This page too is from the Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal that's too large to fit on my scanner.

In the two drawings of Tabitha Coffey at the right from June 27 I drew with the watercolor brush, washing lines out to shadow areas as I went. In the bottom sketch you can see how I repositioned her ear and rethought the size and angle of the head once I had committed to the nose and cheeks.

Purple magenta is kind of a disconcerting color to use for this monochromatic approach. But I enjoy it. And it was out on the palette.

If you have been working a lot with the PPBP I recommend that you take an evening and work with a watercolor brush and watercolor or gouache, to move away from the dark lines of the ink pen. It helps you rethink where you want to put shading and lines, and that's all useful when you jump back to using the PPBP and vice versa.

(Note: I just created a category for "brush pens" but if you want more posts on them you'll need to look for the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, Aquash Brush Pen, and Bienfang Brush Pen in the blog's search engine. Sorry I didn't think of this category earlier. Also you could search for additional posts on Drawing with a brush. I'll start you out with this post of drawing with a brush pen and then taking it to a finished painting: "Journaling Superstitions #19: You Can't Journal without Your Journal.)

June 14, 2013

Above: A page spread from an 11 x 14 inch Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media hardbound journal. Pentel Pocket Brush Pen Sketch and DaVinci Gouache. I used a large filbert (about an inch wide) and a smaller filbert, about 3/8 inch wide) to paint all the strokes here. The image is too large to scan so I put it on the floor and photographed it. The light is a little odd and she looks more orange than she is. (It's Angela Lansbury—I'm still watching Perry Mason, but I needed some "comfort food" viewing and have been watching a little bit of "Murder She Wrote." I stopped to action to sketch this view. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I've mentioned before that my sketches have been getting larger and larger. It's that "Piecemeal Style" I've been working in. I just keep adding paper extensions as the drawing grows out of the paper size.

Left: Is a scan of what would fit. If you click on it you can see a bit more detail in the paint strokes. The color is more accurate in this image. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I decided that for my next journal I'd get the biggest one possible, which had paper that I liked. Making a journal this large would be costly because I'd have to waste a lot of paper to get this trim size with some sheets of paper. While I could use a 22 x 30 inch sheet with the grain running with the 30 inch length and get two pieces that were 22 x 15 and would fold with the grain to 11 x 15 it would mean I'd only get two pieces per sheet. I'd need 4 per signature which means I'd need two full sheets of paper per signature and with paper that size running about $4 or more a sheet it gets expensive quickly. Anyway, I don't enjoy binding books that large and since Strathmore already makes a lovely hardbound book with their Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media paper, I don't have to. (I wouldn't have had any place to bind it either as my worktable is stacked with stuff related to what's going on in the folks' lives right now.) So I went to Wet Paint and purchased one and got busy.

Left: Here's a detail view of one portion of the sketch. You can see thin and thicker applications of paint. And you can also see how I'm allowing my white brush to pick up other color when I'm moving around the face. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I also wrote about my decision to not use DaVinci Gouache any more over on Artist's Journal Workshop. I did in fact talk to the grandmother and art mentor to my favorite 8-year-old and she thought he could have fun with the paint so it was packed up and sent to him. She knows the best ways to approach it so it won't put him off painting, but she knows he shouldn't use it in his journals (yes he has journals and goes landscape sketching with his grandmother).

Left: One more detail portion because I think the eye is kind of fun to see up close. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

But all this is background. I wanted to write today about playing with paint, pushing it around, which you can do even if the paint isn't your favorite!

As you can see in the details of the image I'm having a lot of fun quickly pushing paint around. There are thin underlying passages of paint that I worked in quickly and let dry (usually) before bringing in heavier paint. (You can work on other areas of the painting while a particular area dries.) There are layers of heavier paint smoothed in with other layers of paint, and there are layers of paint stroked on top of everything with a dry brush.

This was all done very quickly with an attitude of play and "what can I notice?" I didn't worry about smoothing edges or hiding my brush strokes. I love seeing my brush strokes when I do this. They leave a trail that shows me how I was thinking at the moment.

I hope you have some time to play with paint this weekend, regardless of the type of paint you're using. I also hope that at least for one sketch you can let yourself go and not worry about your dirty brush (interesting things can happen) and not worry about making a perfect picture. Just work as hard as you can with your full attention, and ask yourself: "What can I notice?"

What can I notice about: the paint, the water amount needed (if the paint is watersoluble) in the brush or the paint; the paper, it's ability to take water, the length of time it takes to dry, the point at which I can add more paint to the paper (when I want to blend, when I want to cover, when I want to cover with a dry-brush effect on the final stroke; how dry paint has to be before I can go over it and not pick it up, pick it up slightly, be able to blend it smoothly (and how does the paper and paint on the paper look at each of those moments); what types of brushes make the types of strokes I want, how did I angle the brush to get that stroke; how can I make this form move away from me and look dimensional; how dark is this value; can I hide this pen line; do I want to hide this pen line; do I want to work in pencil because it will be easier to hide my lines; what works and what doesn't work; what do I want to try again; how does working large help or hinder me?

May 20, 2013

Left: Twenty-minute watercolor Brush Pen sketch of the life model in gesture class. I drew directly with the blue brush and then washed out and diluted the color with a size 10 round that I kept in my hand. I was out of half sheets of Richeson recycled watercolor paper and wanted to work larger than a quarter sheet so I used duct tape (usually used to mark the model's feet placement for after break) to hold these two pieces together. (15 x 22 inches.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The model is very "art deco" in her look which you would see if I'd sketched her whole body, but by the time we get to the longer poses at the end of the class all I want to do is focus on the face. And Christine lets me do this. It's my time to experiment. And time to have a live model sit for me who actually holds a pose—such a luxury in a life filled with sketches made in stolen minutes in waiting rooms and on park benches.

What I really wanted to write briefly about today was spring and cycling.

Last week I got to ride outside five days, with no snow (which this spring is actually an oddity). It has been great to get out on the road again. Rain at the end of the week pushed me inside on Saturday to ride while watching DVDs.

But today, in the morning, the rain stopped and it wasn't horribly muggy. I got out for 17 miles of battling the wind. At first I told myself it wasn't that bad. "It's a crosswind," I kept repeating to myself as I tried to keep my speed around 16 mph even when gusts of wind threatened to knock me sideways.

On the return home I barrelled up the Sabo bridge at 15 mph (my routes are pretty flat so this is my "hill"). I crested the bridge, and turned, with the curve of the downward slope of the bridge, right into the wind! I was peddling as hard as I could while going down hill, and I was going 13 miles per hour. (Usually I go down this slope at about 26 mph.) (The wind was listed on the weather as 18 mph with gusts at 27 mph.)

When I turned on the flat a team rider decked out in his sponsor-splashed jersey and shorts pulled up along side of me and we peddled together for a bit—"I forget every year," he said, making conversation, "that we only have two seasons in Minnesota—Winter and Windy." We looked at each other and laughed with open mouths as the wind slammed right into us.

Despite the wind, I have had enough outside miles that I was able to shave 2 minutes off my time. So it was a good ride, even if it was hot (75-80) and humid (85 percent).

But speaking of spring and outside miles, another little factoid: On May 12th I had ridden 219 miles outside. Last year on May 12th I had already ridden 727 miles! Snow and ice storms kept me from riding as much this year in April and May. There were probably about 5 days or 100 miles more that I could have put on this year if a family crisis hadn't kept me from riding, but that's still only 319 miles which is less than half of what I did by this time last year. Just saying…California looks pretty good, even with earthquakes.

Today I turned over at 300 miles and I'm grateful for every second of outdoor riding time; it's just a little strange to wear tights one day and shorts the next. We may have skipped spring to go right to summer, but I'm outside and that's what I'm excited about.

I hope you are all getting out to enjoy spring (or fall if you're in another hemisphere). And if you have to deal with a wall of wind, may a friendly soul swing by to cheer you on. You can always be that for someone else.

August 09, 2012

Left: Dove at a nursing home aviary. Test using dip pen and brush with acrylic ink (Ziller Glossy Black) and then washes of Schmincke and M. Graham gouache; on the Jack Richeson Recycled Watercolor paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

This is also a quarter sheet, so about 11 x 15 inches. I've been spending a lot of time studying the birds at the aviary in the nursing home where Phyllis is staying. I can't use acrylic ink there because I might spill it! But I took some photos and together with my sketches as reference did this Ziller Acrylic ink sketch (Glossy Black) using a dip pen (with a fine nib and one with a round calligraphy nib, the name of which I forget), and a no. 4 round brush (which I have dedicated to acrylic ink use—don't use your good sable brushes for this).

I wanted to see what ink did on this paper. Since it's cold press paper the fine nib was used gingerly so it wouldn't get clogged with fibers. I liked the way the ink line from the brush broke up because of the texture of the paper.

There are two places in the sketch where the ink bled—but that's because I'd deposited a lot of ink there and wasn't willing to let the ink dry. I could still see it was wet, but didn't care, wanted to start painting. If you wait a moment, the acrylic inks you use on this paper are going to dry nicely and this glossly black is quite vibrant on the paper.

Next I used a 2-inch flat to stroke colors across the drawing. I spread some of that around more with a paper towel. Finally I went in with a no. 4 round to do the darker layers. (The bird's beak really is that long.)

Again, I had great fun with this paper. It took the multiple washes well. I worked over some of the wet bits without pilling or roughing up the surface. I let my fingers smooth out some strokes. In general I just had a lot of fun. I think I'll be doing a lot of ink sketches on this paper, with some gouache washes. That's good—since my last post I purchased 100 sheets of this paper (so I was able to get it for 99 cents a sheet); I'll be able to play around with it at home, in the field, and in life drawing.

The painting on this sketch was done with a 3/4 inch angled shader (around the edges, all the background). I used a red and a blue gouache. Then while the paint was still wet I used a damp 3-inch wide flat brush to slide over the paint surface and drag some pigment into the sketch and add more color over the surface of the white paper.

June 22, 2012

Above: Canary study in gouache. No undersketch at all. For this bird I worked directly with layers of Schmincke gouache over a pre-painted (acrylics) background. The sketch is in my current journal: an 8 inch (approx.) square journal I made with TH Saunders Waterford 90 lb. HP watercolor paper. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

While I doubt anyone will bring a bird to Paws on Grand, I of course have to draw and paint birds from time to time. I think we can also include him in the Faces project! On this evening I had yet to paint anything and decided to pull up some photos I'd taken of birds on recent sketching trips to the pet store.

I loved the orange background but I had to lose it because there were edges I needed to fix in my "drawing." At least with gouache you can do that!

Left: Since this is a project about faces here's a detail of the canary's face. A lovely little bird. When I met him at the store I sketched him for quite awhile before snapping his photo and departing for home. (I used the sketches as well as the photos to make this painted sketch back in the studio.) He was very curious. The orange you see around his beak, eyebrow, and top of his head is all the background color showing through. One of the nice things about having a pre-painted background is that you can leave a thin space between your areas of color and you won't see "white" and your paint won't run together. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Someone asked me about brushes the other day and I have several posts on my favorite brushes, but I haven't had the time (or hand strength) to update those. I just wanted to give you a heads up that I recently purchased a set of brushes from Princeton labeled "Snap." There were 5 to the package, including a 3/4 inch angled shader and a filbert and a round. At least I think there were 5 brushes, they got mixed in with other things. The point is, for under $15 I got a great deal on some synthetic brushes that are really quite springy and fun to use. So look for them wherever you find Princeton brushes, especially if you are new to gouache and worried about being too hard on your watercolor brushes.

(Note: I'm not affiliated with Princeton at all. I just thought I'd let you know their are good deals on useful brushes out there! Update: There were 3 brushes to most packages I saw on a trip to the store earlier this week [and I forgot to update this post that was scheduled to print]. That's still a good deal. They are useful brushes I'm quite enjoying.)

April 20, 2012

Above: Page spread of quick sketches in a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia journal using the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Read below for more information.

This post is part 2 in a multi-part special Project Friday—a mini class for getting used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Please view last week's Project Friday for part one.

By now you've been working constantly with your Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (PPBP), at least over last weekend, perhaps for the entire week (I hope so). You have experimented with the different types of marks you can make with the pen by doodling and trying pressure and a variety of strokes. You also were tasked with sketching everything you came across only with this pen.

There may have been some frustrating moments. It may have been love at first stroke. Whichever it was for you the main goal now is to keep working with the pen, for another week (at least for this weekend). Take it everywhere with you, along with your journal. (A 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia was recommended for reasons of consistency explained in last week's post, but use whatever journal you have available if it means you're going to be sketching!)

Your assignment this week is to SQUINT your eyes until all you see of your subject are darks and lights—no midtone values. That's what you are going to draw this weekend (or week).

In the samples above you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm not worrying about getting details with the lines, I'm simply trying to block in the shadow areas allowing their edges to describe the form. It's not always going to work smoothly, but it is always going to be fun to give it a go.So SQUINT your eyes and start moving your pen, drawing those shadow areas. You might want to create some hatch lines in areas of midtone gray as I have done on the necks of some faces, but that's up to you. If you decide to do any hatching think of it as an experiment in mark making and focus mostly on the dark shadow areas.

I've done these quick examples (each 30 to 60 seconds) while watching a TV show. You can squint and draw as the show speeds by you or if you have recorded the show or have the capability of pausing the show's transmission you can choose to stop the action instead.

After you have done a couple pages of quick sketches by using the TV that way, venture out into the world and practice on moving models. (They don't have to be actually moving—you could find some people sipping coffee at a cafe for instance.) Look for harsh lighting conditions, like bright sunlight. And be sure to squint.

Why do this? Because this will help you work on control of the PPBP at the same time it will expose you to another way to use it—solidly, not just making fine or fat lines. And that will give you more options.

It will also help you make quick assessments about the shadow shapes. You will improve your ability to capture the shape of something (which ultimately defines the character of what you're drawing).

You want to work quickly and make bold decisions, but you also want to work deliberately. If you are finding your shapes aren't turning out as accurately as you would like, slow down your mind and hand and feel the pressure of the pen tip as you move it across the page—light and heavy pressure as you need it. The goal is to make a shadow shape with a minimum of fussing. You want to describe the shape by using the tip and body of the brush in a fluid movement, getting in and out, and not restating.

Your internal critic should be turned completely off. You want to judge how accurate you have been so that you can improve, but if you've not been accurate there's no more discussion—you just make another sketch and try to improve based on what you feel went wrong before. Tell your internal critic to shut up.

Concentrate more on whether or not the shadow shapes you've created are pleasing, placed in the general area they need to be, and somewhat indicative of what they need to represent. Don't fixate on whether or not you have an accurate "portrait" of your subject. Get a feel for the face and action of the person, rather than a portrait you could use in a dragnet!

Remember you are still getting used to working with the PPBP.

Left: Sketches using the Pentel Aquash Brush Pigment Ink Filled Brush Pen. Read more about this below. (Apologies to Sarah Shahi who is one of the most beautiful women on TV, with a nose that is pure delight to draw and I have been fascinated with her face since I first saw her in "Life.") Click on the image to view an enlargement.

It's filled with light black pigment ink that might not seem as stark to you. You can also layer on additional strokes to make the values darker. It might be a good transitional tool for you. See the examples in the second image in today's post.

The ink in the Aquash is also waterproof which may become important to you at a later date (remember I have more of these posts planned).

If you do switch to the Aquash be sure to switch back to the PPBP after a couple days to experiment again with the sold black ink it lays down.

March 09, 2012

Watercolor artist Cathy (Kate) Johnson, who has numerous how-to art books to her name, is one of this year's Strathmore Workshop artists. Her series on "Watercolor Sketching" began March 1.

To register for this free class go to the Strathmore Artist's main page. In the bottom left of the page click on the workshop box. Then follow the instructions to register.

If you are a registered student from last year all you have to do is go to the sign-in page for the Strathmore Online Workshops. Sign in with your email and password. At the home page which comes up you will see the icons for the three workshops just below the introductory text. Click on the one you want to join. (Only workshop 1 and 2 are open at this time. They start at staggered times just like last year.)

Cathy's approach is clear and thoughtful. She has a calm but obiviously joyful attitude about her materials and her process. You will enjoy watching along as she develops her sketches. The lessons are staggered one 1 week apart; lesson two just came on line March 8. For each of her lessons she'll be doing two videos. One will introduce concepts, the other will show those concepts in action. Lessons are accompanied by excellent downloadable instructions chockful of illustrations.

Strathmore has provided a classroom "space" for students to interact with blogs and message boards, so you can extend your participation in this adventure.

Last year workshops were only available until September. I don't see any notes on how long this year's classes will be up on the site. While you can go to these classes at anytime and work at your own pace, do work a visit into your plans soon so that you can take full advantage of the opportunity in case this year's workshops are also only available for a limited time.

You can find out more about Cathy (Kate) Johnson at the link that starts this post. You can also enjoy Cathy's on-going blogging at Artist's Journal Workshop, which suports her recent book by the same title. This would be a great weekend to get some watercolor sketching instruction!

February 14, 2012

Above: This is a spread in my handbound journal using Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Paper which is now available in sheets. (The journal is approx. 7 x 9-3/8 inches.) I worked with a couple almost dried out Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pens. I used left over Schmincke gouache from my palette and just kept with mixing purples and magentas. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I'm not a big fan of doodling—for myself. Typically I'm ready to move on to another page. But sometimes late at night, after I have sketched and after I've written something, it seems to me that doodling is a way to keep playing with paint and not start a new page (though there would be nothing wrong with that, but again typically I'm not in the mood to go to bed leaving pages unfinished).

Doodling is a great way to try out the marks a tool makes, whether that tool is a dried out marker or a particular paint brush. Across this spread I can find eight experiments, wait nine. Things I just wanted to try on this night.

Take some time to experiment. Doodling will make it seem less serious, but the results you get will be just as valid as information so that you can thoughtfully plan your next project.